Happy 1st Birthday!

That's right, one year ago our newest angels (now little devils) entered this world in a very special way and our lives haven't been the same since. What an incredible year it has been to watch them grow and develop their own personalities. It's been a grueling 12 months for all of us, but we are all better off from it. Evelyn becomes closer to her sisters every day and can't wait for the day when she can have two play friends because our lives are so busy we rarely get time to just stop and play, but we do our best. The girls are now crawling all over the place and when they get active its like trying to herd cats, all three girls go in opposite directions and wreak havoc wherever they go.

For me, it's been an amazing time watching Emily. She was a one-in-a-million mother to Evelyn when she was born and has taken the job of being a mother of three kids (with twins) to an entirely new level. She is an incredible woman, wife, and mother - I sometimes don't know how she does it, but I thank her dearly for it!

Rather than post an update, I figured I would post a picture montage I put together for us for their birthday. I started doing this with Evelyn for her first two years and thought what a better time to put one together for their first year. These take a long time to put together and I've watched this 100 times and it makes me cry every time, its OK if you get a little teary eyed, it's good for the soul every so often.

Thank you to everyone for your support, prayers, and love. Turn up your speakers and enjoy! Please leave your birthday wishes for the girls!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHRYN

& SOPHIA!

Note: Video is about 40 min long

New Post Sneak Peek...

Everyone,

We apologize for the delay in posting a new blog entry and updated pictures, so goes the life with twins and a 3-year old. We hope to post something soon with lots of news and updates, below are teaser pics for you to enjoy!

Check back soon...

Tom, Emily, Evelyn, Kathryn, & Sophia

(Note: The black dot on Kathryn's forehead is from the camera lens).

Free at Last...

It's been quite some time since we've posted news and updates, but we wanted to continue to keep everyone updated on thier progress.

The biggest news of all is that the girls are off their monitors for good. Last week, a technician came to the house to download the data from the monitors and set them up for their final neumogram. The girls had their second and final trip to the pulmonary clinic where they received all A's; the downloads and neumogram came back normal. While we were very excited that our girls are growing up strong, we were both a little apprehensive having them off their monitors. Kathryn continued to have alarms right up to the day of thier appointment, but they explained to us that it was just very deep sleep and the results from the monitor were normal. We were particularly nervous for Sophia. Sophia has had a fantastic last couple of months and rarely had an alarm. Because of this, we usually did not hook them up to their monitors during the day. About two weeks ago they were both taking an afternoon nap, but sleeping longer than normal. Emily had decided to check on them and yelled for my help because Sophia was not responding to her touch. Sophia was completely non-responsive and her color was pale if not blue. We continued to try and gently rouse her and called her name and she still did not respond to us. We almost dialed 911, but she eventually came out of it slowly and returned to normal breathing after about 3-5 minutes. This had to be the single most frightening event to ever happen to Emily and I, we both saw our entire lives pass before our eyes. We discussed this "episode" with several of the doctors and they thought it could have been just a very deep sleep and told us to keep an eye on both of them. If it happens again, we need to inform thier doctor and they may order and EKG to look into it further. As you can imagine, we are now overly cautious when they sleep and I tend to sleep with one eye open at night just to be certain they are both still breathing OK.

Back to the good news, both girls are nearly 10.5 lbs now and 22" long. Even though that may sound tiny to most, its exciting to watch them fill out and be almost 4 times their birth weight. The doctors are very happy with their fast and continuing weight gain; how can't they with all the milk they drink every 2 hours (see pic below of their stash) . Other than a stuffy nose that Sophia had for a couple of weeks, we have managed to keep both of the girls pretty healthy.

Each of them are beginning to act more and more like babies and we are starting to see thier personalities develop. Sophia is the happiest baby you'll ever see and constantly has a smile on her face. Kathryn is the more serious one, but tends to "talk" more and has the prettiest smile on the planet. Both are beginning to smile, laugh, and "talk" back to us when we play with them and they look like they are trying so hard to put words together. They are getting more and more tummy time to help them build thier neck muscles. Both can hold their heads up very good and both can roll over from thier tummy to thier backs already. We mentioned this to the pulmonary doctor and he said they shouldn't being doing that yet at thier age so they may even be a little ahead of where they need to be. We can't wait for them to start crawling

The last couple of weeks I have had to travel for work. Two weeks ago I was in Tampa for a couple of days and last week I was in Las Vegas for four days so Emily was on her own, God Bless her, she is definately in the running for mother of the year. During this time, she ending up getting sick, the monitor people had stopped by multiple times, and Evelyn was having nightmares for the first time, it seemed all hell broke loose the second I left the house. After all that, Emily and Evelyn had had enough of the home life so we decided to go on a family adventure outside the home. It was only to the mall and a few other stores for easter outfits, but they'll take whatever they can get. Everything went great and the girls were fantastic. You'd be amazed at how many complete strangers want to stop you to witness the miracle of twins - everywhere we went! We were out and about for about 4 hours and during our final stop, Evelyn got a little cranky (no nap) and the girls were a little hungry; the perfect storm! We loaded all of them in the car all the while Evelyn was crying that she wanted something from the store and both girls were screaming for milk - 3 SCREAMING GIRLS - Emily and I just looked at each other and starting laughing out loud...what have we gotten ourselves into? Now that Emily and the girls have gotten a taste of freedom, they can't get enough. This past weekend we decided to take Evelyn to "The Treehouse" in Chelsea, an indoor playground. Evelyn and I had a blast climbing, jumping, and sliding down the slides...I think we both needed the activity. Unfortunately we ended up being caught in the Easter snowstorm and it took nearly 2.5 hours to get home. I even got back to some normalcy this week and managed to get some yard work done...sunshine, fresh air, a rake...ahhh...the life of man with three girls!

Over the weekend the girls got to meet thier 2 month old cousin, Cohen, for the first time. He is my brother's son who up until recently has been living in FL for the last 2 years. It's amazing to see the difference between them at 5 months vs a full term 2 month old. Cohen was only about 2 lbs heavier, but it seemed more like 10 lbs, check out the pic below

Also over the weekend all the girls got to enjoy Easter at Mum's house and meet a few more members of thier extended family. They also had a quick visit with Grandma Bino's to show off thier bunny coats. Of course lots of pics below.

For now everything seems to be going well and we are very happy with thier progress. Our next appointment is with the plastic surgeon next week to discuss Kathryn's head and to begin to schedule the surgeries. We're nervous at the thought of our baby having to go through this, and we pray that everything goes as planned. We'll keep everyone updated.

Please enjoy some pics below and thanks for visiting!

Kathryn smiling / "cooing"

Bedtime sleeping arrangements

Ready for bed (with her infamous spike)

ALWAYS smiling!

The milk stash

Sophia practicing sitting

Sleepy babies...whose who?

Wrestling already?

Cousin Cohen (at 2 months vs the girls 5 months)

Tummy time

Mommy kisses

Evelyn's indoor playground trip

Evelyn and her best friend (second cousin) Jaclyn

Easter babies

Easter bunnies?

Our Easter presents!

Feedback Requested

We continue to update the blog as much as we can and we see that people are visiting, but we wanted to get feedback from the visitors we do have.

For family and friends, we'd like to know if you want us to continue to post updates and pictures on all the girls. We don't see a lot of comments from visitors, so we are unsure who is visiting the site and keeping up with their progress. We still have a couple of months before the girls can have normal visitation and would like to know if everyone wants us to continue to post updates and pictures until then.

Thanks to everyone that does visit and leave your comments, but if there is anyone else out there that would like us to continue updating the site, please et us know by leaving a comment.

Thanks again!
Tom & Emily

Big o' Babies

Real Age: 4 months 4 days old

Adjusted Age: 1 month 14 days old

The past two weeks have been busy doctor weeks for the girls. The week before last, we went to the girls’ primary physician, Dr. Choudhury’s office, twice. All three girls had appointments at the same time, so I had to take my mother-in-law with me to help out. Thank God for her. Two car seat carriers, two monitors, a three year old, a diaper bag and a purse – its impossible to travel without help. On the first visit, the twins received their monthly RSV shots to keep them from getting respiratory infections. On the second visit, they got their first vaccines (two shots in each thigh). Poor babies cried harder then ever, but it didn’t last long. They're both almost 8-1/2 lbs already, more than triple thier birth weight. Evelyn had to get her 3 year physical, and the Doctor told us that from his observations of her she is a very intelligent little girl. That’s been my theory since she usually out smarts me in all situations, but it was neat getting the theory confirmed.

This past week we took the twins to their first pulmonary consultation and the Doctor discontinued their caffeine and said if they could go one more month with good readings on their monitors then we can discontinue those also. Excellent news! Since he said that their last monitor downloads came back very normal, we have been a lot less strict about hooking them up to them. I have pretty much only been putting them on during the night or in the car. It is so nice to care for the girls and hold them without cords hanging off them. This next month can’t go by fast enough for me to say goodbye to monitors for good! Also, at this appointment during his examination of the girls, his observation was that Sophia is a little more “mature” that Kathryn. This came after he checked all their reflexes. This doesn’t mean Kathryn is behind – just that Sophia is a little more ahead.

The other doctor appointment was called “Special Care Clinic” where they were seen by a speech therapist, a physical therapist, a dietician, a neonatal nurse and neonatologist. We just sat in a room for about 3 hours and one person after another came in to consult with the girls. It was very impressive and made us feel good about their progress. The same observation regarding Sophia being a little more mature was made and we’ve just been told to work with Kathryn by giving her more tummy time to make her exercise and build up her strength and head control. We’ve been told to watch both girls closely to see steady physical progress over the next several months and make sure that they don’t get stuck in a stage.

Overall all of are girls are happy, healthy and full of spunk!

Enjoy more pics below, they are getting bigger every time we post news...

Happy girls...Sophia smiling and Kathryn in mid "coo"

Daddy's favorite activity with the girls...gives new meaning to having your hands full.

Can you find the girls?

Smile Kathryn!

You too Sophia!

All three of our babies.

Mum with her Short granddaughters.

Sweet Kathryn.

Sophia trying to sit up.

Kathryn hangin' out with Mommy.

Soon they'll be doing this on thier own.

To give everyone an idea of how much they have grown, the diaper on the left is what they wear now, the one on the right is what they wore when they were born.

3 and 30! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

As most of you know, Evelyn's and Emily's birthday's were this past week. This past Saturday we celebrated Evelyn's 3rd birthday with a small party at home and a quick surprise cake and singing for Emily's 30th birthday (poor Emily, no party for turning 30). On Sunday, we celebrated again with my family because my sisters birthday is 1/26 and my brother and sister-in-law got to meet the girls for the first time since they were born. Thanks to everyone that celebrated thier birthdays!

I just wanted to say HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY to my baby girl Evelyn, who is no longer a baby by the way, and HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY to my beautiful wife, Emily Jo. I love you both to no end!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADIES!


Love, Tom, Kathryn, & Sophia

PS If you visit, feel free leave your own wishes for the birthday girls!

Emily with her birthday cake (Thanks Stephanie and crew!)

Evelyn inspecting her cake, she wanted a jungle cake with animals. (This is the infamous Emily, Teresa, & Evelyn creation from last Friday.)

Anxious to see what's in those fancy presents (When did our baby grow up?).

Happy Birthday to you......

(she was so polite, she said thank you when we were done singing to her)

This is what she was waiting for...

All's Well...

Real Age: 3 months 16 days old
Adjusted Age: 3 weeks 6 days old

Hi everyone! Obviously we don’t have much time to post anymore, but I just laid Evelyn down for her nap and the twins are in their swings sucking away on pacifiers so I had to make a choice: a shower, or post a blog. Tom says I have to post a blog, so he’ll have to put up with a non-showered wife. Hopefully, I’ll get some time later.

So, life with three children is very eventful! It’s truly not as hard as I thought it would be having twins, but I do run my butt off everyday trying to take care of all of us. We’ve settled into a pretty good routine (even at 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM when Tom and I each grab a girl and a bottle – every night!) and I’d say that the only thing not running as smoothly as I wish it were is Evelyn’s play time. Now that she has me home with her all day, she wants my full attention, and unfortunately that’s not always possible. I think sometimes she feels neglected, but she still has been keeping up the best big sister role ever. She absolutely LOVES her sisters. She is much more doting on them then I ever thought she’d be. She helps us take care of them all day long. She hands us things when we need them, she holds the girls, and she’s even fed them a bottle by herself (see pic below). It’s really fun watching her be so responsible. Every day she seems more like a little girl and less like a toddler.

One thing I can say is I can’t wait for - Spring. Evelyn and I are feeling a little caged staying in the house all the time. The only time the twins have left the house is for the occasional doctor’s appt. However, this past Friday, I did take all three girls to my mom’s house for the day to make Evelyn’s birthday cake. That was quite the event! My goal was to have all of us up, fed, showered, dressed and in the car by 11:30. We made it by 11:19. (Tom Side Note: I got the call from Emily around 11:30 telling me how proud of herself she was that she was able to get the girls out of the house under 3 hours! :)) I was feeling optimistic when I got to my mom’s house, until I go to take the twins out of the car and I can’t get either car seat out of their bases. Mind you it was a freezing snowy day and I tried for over a half hour, before I had to take the girls out of their seats, try to wrap them in blankets and run into the house before they got cold. It was awful. It took me and my mom until about 8:30 pm to get the cakes done while caring for the girls. By the time we got the girls home that night their monitors were going off like crazy for apnea spells. The whole day must have worn them out and they had episodes all through the night. I don’t think we’ll be doing that again any time soon. Next birthday, I’m calling good ole’ Cakes by Stephanie!

Kathryn and Sophia are doing wonderful. They are about 7 ½ lbs now and are actually looking chubby. Granted they are almost 4 months old and haven’t even hit Evelyn’s birth weight yet, but still they are growing wonderfully! We are scheduled for two lengthy appointments in February to review where they are at with their apnea and monitors. They still continue to have spells, but they are few and far between. Some women from the Early On Program come to our home periodically to check the girls’ development and they say they are at a two month’s old level. That’s actually pretty good since the medical world considers them at an “adjusted age” of 4 weeks old. So, they are a little ahead of what they predicted they would be at this stage. They both are getting very strong and have good head control. They will push themselves up if you lay them on their bellies. Sophia is maybe a little stronger and she really pushes and kicks with her legs. They both respond very well to us when we talk to them and they try to laugh and coo. They are actually really easy and even tempered babies. They really make our little family very complete and even though sometimes I get overwhelmed, every day is joyful watching our three daughters grow. I keep telling myself this is probably the most special time I’ll ever have in my life being able to stay home and care for our babies. I can’t believe Evelyn is already three – it went by so fast, and before I know it all the girls will be in school and I’ll be back to work wondering where the time went.

Well that’s all the update I have time for now. I put Evelyn down a half hour ago and I can hear her running around upstairs obviously not napping and Kathryn is now sitting on my lap squealing! Enjoy some long awaited pics below.

Sophia the innocent.

Double Trouble.

Evelyn's dolls?

Evelyn taking her turn at feeding.

(Poor quality cell phone pic)

Getting some workout time at the gym.


They get really relaxed when they are this close.


Sophia vogueing (is that a word?)

Dorito-faced Evelyn playing with her sisters.

Mum with her hands full.

Thier not talking to each other.

Sometimes, Evelyn needs some cuddle time with mom too.

Emily deciding to make a change, and her mom having no problem obliging.

Never separated.

Kathryn's home weigh-in a couple of weeks ago.

Sophia's weigh-in.

Do they look like sisters?

Hi Sophia!

Hi Kathryn!